The purpose of this Contemporary Learning Database

At Blakehurst High School, we have striven to integrate Contemporary Learning pedagogies into the learning environment since 2017. In this year we created the inaugural Future Focused Team and ran a series of successful Professional Learning seminars focusing mainly on teaching strategies. Since then, the team has changed and evolved to be more reflective of current educations practices. In 2019 the team is not a traditional team. It is an "electronic buy-in team" in the sense that there are no formal meetings, all communication is electronic, and team members are contributors working at their own pace and contributing resources that are meaningful to them.

The first task of the new team was to conduct a pre-project survey to capture the current staff's understanding and knowledge of Future Focused pedagogies. Some of the more interesting statistics gathered include:

• 52.6% of respondents indicated that they could define Contemporary learning. Some of the examples given included:

  • Equipping students with the skills they will need in their future;

  • Flexible learning environments, teaching & learning strategies that develop student skills such as critical thinking and analysis, problem solving and other real world skills that can be learnt in and across all KLAs ( not content focused);

  • Prepares students with the skills to learn across all areas of the curriculum to be able to perform in any environment (post school) in a rapidly changing world;

  • and: learning geared to cater to skills/roles/courses that may not yet be in existence.

  • This data reveals that while on average staff have a basic understanding of Contemporary learning, there needs to more explicit instruction and guidance for staff in understanding the pedagogical approach.

• 29.4% of respondents indicated that they use Contemporary learning strategies at least once a week in their class room. Here is a break down of the current rates of use at BHS:

• 23.5% of respondents never use Contemporary learning strategies.

  • The data here reveals a need for more explicit modelling of strategies both in the form of traditional Professional Learning such as micro-teaching of strategies, as well as user-friendly resources to help teachers begin using these strategies to improve student learning and outcomes. The team will use CESE's What Works Best research to deliver meaningful learning experiences for staff in this field.

• 55.6% of respondents indicated that they have never read any literature on Contemporary learning. Sandra Robinson, Director of Leadership Pathways (DoE) made a strong argument for an increase in use of empirical data and research to improve teaching practices (Leading, Teaching and Learning, 2019).

  • Embedded into this database is a fluid and ever-evolving literature review that team members contribute to on a regular basis. We hope that this will encourage ongoing learning and engagement with current trends in educational research. If you would like to contribute, submit your review to Alexis Hunter. Your work will be credited on the site.

• 73.3% of respondents indicated that they do not know how to use the resources in our Contemporary learning classrooms (10 and 3) effectively.

  • As part of our Professional Learning plan, the team will be hosting micro-lessons in these rooms for teacher observation. Staff will be informed of session times via email and the sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the site under "Learning Spaces".

• We asked staff what they would like to learn about Contemporary learning. Here are some of the responses and some of the requests we will be working towards fulfilling through this database and Professional Learning experiences:

  • I'd like to learn about:

    • easy to implement strategies

    • how and why [strategies] have been proven to be effective and in what contexts

    • explicit teaching

    • practical applications in the classroom

    • generic methodologies

    • examples of activities that can be used in the classroom

    • what FFL lessons/strategies have teachers at Blakehurst used this year

    • current literature

    • using spaces

We hope that this database will help you on your journey out of the 20th century and towards effective Contemporary learning practices. Feel free to contact the team to make requests or seek personalised assistance.

Who can I contact?

Contemporary Learning Team Leader:

• • Alexis Hunter

Team Supervisor:

• • Mahmud Ali

Second in charge:

• • Goran Petkovski

Team Members:

• • Bill Catopidis

  • Kerry-Anne Faria

  • Nathan Smith